Voting open to find Scotland's Most Beautiful High Street

Voting is now open for the Scotland's Most Beautiful High Street competition!

After receiving fantastic entries, a judging panel of representatives from Scotland's Towns Partnership and Keep Scotland Beautiful have drawn up a shortlist of 10 finalists. The winner will be decided by an online public vote, which will be open until 1 October 2017. The winner will be announced at Scotland's Towns Conference in Paisley on 21st November 2017.

Scotland’s Most Beautiful High Street competition takes a broad understanding of “beautiful”, and we sought to know what it is about your High Street which makes it special.

Our high streets and town centres are the beating hearts of communities and local economies. Now we want to celebrate the contribution of our High Streets and recognise the efforts made to make these spaces clean, attractive, accessible, vibrant and inclusive for all to enjoy.

On the launch of the voting, Chief Officer Phil Prentice said, “We were delighted to receive so many applications for this, the first national competition to find Scotland’s Most Beautiful High Street, in partnership with Keep Scotland Beautiful.

“The wide variety and calibre of entrants into this year’s competition is a testament to the work that communities across Scotland are doing in collaboration, to support and promote good quality environments and the vibrancy of their town centres.”

Carole Noble, Operations Director with Keep Scotland Beautiful commented, “We know that good quality environments are good for businesses and good for people. People vote with their feet if streets are littered, empty shop windows are flyposted and graffiti tarnishes walls and doors.

“We are delighted to be involved with Scotland’s Towns Partnership to showcase some of our best High Streets. I’d urge everyone to vote for the places they care for in this competition - working together we can all enjoy and celebrate cleaner, greener and more beautiful places.”

Scotland’s Towns Partnership, Keep Scotland Beautiful and the Sunday Herald have come together to launch the first ever Scotland’s Most Beautiful High Street competition.

Our high streets and town centres are the beating hearts of communities and local economies. Now we want to celebrate the contribution of our High Streets and recognise the efforts made to make these spaces clean, attractive, accessible, vibrant and inclusive for all to enjoy.

The competition is being launched in the Sunday Herald as part of the Scotland’s Towns series in the paper, and encourages local authorities, business improvement districts, development trusts, community councils and any other local organisation to get involved.

The winning entry will be announced at Scotland’s Towns Partnership’s Annual Conference in Paisley, on 21 November 2017.